


Five Times Fire Lord Zuko Surprised His Servants

by AppleCiderr



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: 5 Times, 5+1 Things, Anxiety, Anxiety Attacks, Gaang (Avatar), Gaang (Avatar) as Family, Iroh (Avatar) is a Good Uncle, Iroh (Avatar) loves Tea, Protective Zuko (Avatar), Servants, Zuko (Avatar)-centric, Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:48:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27579383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AppleCiderr/pseuds/AppleCiderr
Summary: And the one time they surprised him.Alternatively, Zuko treats his servants with kindness and none of them really know how to handle it.
Comments: 20
Kudos: 399
Collections: A:tla





	1. The Broken Tray

**Author's Note:**

> Someone on Reddit mentioned they would like to see a fic about Zuko's servants and their reaction to him treating them with dignity, so I decided to try my hand at writing it! Hopefully you all enjoy it!

When the banished servants of the royal family received the letters, none of them knew what to think.

Their letters were formal, apologizing for their wrongful banishment and offering their position in the palace with a pay raise. Each one was hand signed by the new leader of the fire nation, Fire Lord Zuko.

They weren’t completely unaware of what had happened back home. The defeat of Princess Azula and Phoenix King Ozai spread through the four nations faster than a wildfire. Everyone knew that the Avatar had defeated their terrifying leader, and that Azula had been defeated by her own brother and his water tribe companion.

_ The _ Prince Zuko, fighting alongside fighters from several other nations and the Avatar. When they recalled the three years that the prince had spent relentlessly hunting down that very person, it sounded like a terrible lie.

They had all heard the stories, they were still apprehensive about serving anyone from  _ that _ family. But many of them came from a long line of servants, ones who had been living in the palace for generations. Their families had been working in the palace so long that they had no idea how to go about finding another job.

With great apprehension, most all of them accepted the offer to return.

When they finally got back to the Royal Palace, it was an underwhelming welcome. The fire sages were spending their time hurriedly preparing for the coronation, while the soon-to-be Fire Lord was apparently doing his best to invite the other three nations as witnesses to it. 

With no real orders, they all returned to their normal duties from before. No one wanted to face the wrath of the royal family again. They were terrified of getting banished once more. So, they all remained on their guard and tiptoed around the palace. If they kept quiet and busy, then they couldn’t get in trouble.

The first servants to see the Fire Lord again were actually members of the kitchen staff. It was in the early morning, and a guard passed along word that the crown prince had requested some breakfast be brought to his office.

They drew straws to see who would have to go.

The unlucky loser, Raiko, was handed the steaming tray and directed to the Fire Lord’s office. It seemed that their new leader had chosen a different room for his office. She wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

By the time she had reached the door, the tray was shaking in her grasp, her heart was pounding, and her mouth felt dry. She reached up to knock, and then froze. What if she knocked and disturbed him? Perhaps she should just slip inside and leave it for him… But what if that disturbed him? Would she get in trouble either way?!

Before she could make up her mind, the office door slid open and revealed the crown prince himself. She squeaked and stumbled backwards, losing her grip on the heavy ceramic tray. It hit the ground with a loud crash that seemed to echo through the halls. Those in viewing distance froze, waiting to see what would happen.

Raiko felt her lungs screaming for air as desperate tears tumbled down to her cheeks. She fell to her knees and bowed as deep as she could. “I-I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! Please, I swear I can do better! Please forgive me, my prince,  _ please! _ ”

Her words became little more than sobs as she waited for the prince to angrily banish her for not being good enough, but that moment never came.

Instead, the crown prince knelt down next to her and held his hands out, but hesitated right before he made contact. He dropped his outstretched hands and regarded her with an awkward expression on his face.

"Um… Hey, it’s okay. It’s not your fault, accidents happen.” He said in a gentle voice. “I’m not upset.”

Instantly, the servant was overwhelmed by confusion. She stared at him through her red rimmed eyes, the disbelief obvious on her face. She was so surprised she couldn’t even come up with a response.

The young leader gave her a nervous smile in return. “It’s okay, really. It’s just a dumb tray.” He turned to glance down at the mess on the floor. “I'll help you clean it up.”

The idea seemed insane to Raiko. “No, no, my prince! I- I am the servant, I can clean it up! It was my fault anyways-”

Prince Zuko shook his head. “I startled you, it’s my fault too. I’ll help.” He replied in a firm yet calm tone. 

Too confused and afraid to argue, Raiko forced herself to nod and began to pick up the pieces (With the Fire Lord’s help) and place them on the cloth napkin that had survived the fall. 

She tied the napkin closed and delicately held the bundle in her hand, afraid that she might drop it and make another mess. She turned to face the young man and bowed as deep as she possibly could.

"Thank you for your help, My Prince." She kept her eyes on the floor as she recalled the way she was supposed to speak to the royal family. "I am sorry that I wasted your valuable time."

"You didn't, I promise." His voice was tired, but kind. "It was nice to have an excuse to take a break from all that letter writing for a little bit."

Raiko dared to glance at the nation leader and noticed a small smile on his face. It wasn't a sadistic smile like the one Phoenix King and the Princess shared. It wasn't the conniving ones that the generals wore when discussing their strategies in the war room. 

It was simply a smile.

All of sudden, Raiko felt relief work its way through the fear. Perhaps she hadn't ruined her life after all. 

She got to her feet with enthusiasm that she hadn't felt since her employment at the Royal Palace, and gave the young leader a quick bow. "I'll come back with a replacement meal right away!" She promised, and hurried away to fulfill it.

\-- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

_ "YOU DID WHAT?!"  _

Perhaps Raiko should have started her story with a sentence that didn't begin with 'I broke the tray with the Fire Lord's food right in front of him'

But she ignored the outburst from the other servants, and continued her story. She told them about how the young man didn't violently burn her, and instead helped her clean up the mess she had made. How Prince Zuko had seemed… Almost nice.

None of them believed her. 

"You said he was writing letters? Probably for the coronation." One of the cooks mentioned.

An older servant, Jiro, hummed thoughtfully. "That's a lot of work, and very tiring. You were lucky, Raiko. If he wasn't distracted, you would have been banished on the spot."

Raiko wanted to insist to her fellow servants that they were wrong. Prince Zuko wouldn't banish her. She didn't know how she knew this, she just had a feeling. But none of her co-workers would agree with that 'feeling.'

She didn't even get a chance to reconfirm her own fuzzy memories. Before she could leave with the tray, one of the more paranoid servants snatched it from her hands.

"Best stay here for now Raiko. If he is in a bad mood and recognizes you after what you did…" He trailed off.

Raiko let out a huge sigh and waved him off, she knew it was useless to try and argue with her paranoid coworker after making them all panic.

As she sat in the bustling kitchen, she thought about what happened. She still couldn't believe she hadn't been fired or banished for the stunt she had pulled. 

Was Jiro right? Did she only survive the encounter because the Prince was so tired that he didn't register what had happened? 

But that didn't make any sense… When Phoenix King Ozai had ever been sleep deprived, he had acted even worse, he didn't suddenly become a kind spirit.

No, Raiko was sure, the Prince had been kind to her. She wasn't sure why, but she was one hundred percent sure that it had happened. 

It was that conviction that made Raiko slip the shattered pieces of the ceramic tray into her room in the servants quarters. To anyone else, it would seem like garbage. 

But for Raiko, it was a reminder of the kindness she had been shown and a tentative hope that things were finally beginning to get better. 


	2. A Theatre Scroll

“Nothing?!”

“Nothing.”

The old servant Daisuke stared at the young Prince as though he suddenly became a waterbender. The young man held his gaze, those golden eyes filled with such intensity that the old man had to fight the urge to squirm.

The young man seemed to understand that his gaze was causing discomfort, because he quickly turned to look down at the papers in front of him. He scratched against the rough paper and shook his head.

“I don’t want anything at the coronation. No banners, no fire, nothing like that.” He declared.

Daisuke couldn’t help but be surprised. In his lifetime he had lived through (arguably) three different coronations with most of them being quite… For lack of a better word: dramatic.

He had witnessed Ozai’s coronation and Azulon’s funeral, he had witnessed the Fire Lord become the Phoenix King, and was banished shortly before Azula’s coronation had been cut short.

Both of Ozai’s affairs had been extremely dramatic. He wanted all the bells and whistles, he wanted everyone to see the power of the Fire Nation. Daisuke assumed that, if it hadn’t been for her declining mental state, Princess Azula would have done the same thing.

But Prince Zuko seemed determined to take all of Daisuke’s preconceived notions about the royal family and throw them out of the window.

“M-may I ask why, My Prince?” He questioned hesitantly, prepared to be sent away for daring to speak his thoughts.

The Fire Nation ruler glanced down at the papers on his desk. Judging by their structure, Daisuke guessed that they were more letters. He briefly wondered how many letters the teen had written since the Agni Kai against his sister.

Zuko’s gaze returned to Daisuke after a few awkward moments of silence. “For the last one hundred years, we’ve spread fear around the world. If we say we’re going to change, but keep doing the same things we did before, then have we changed?” He asked aloud. 

“It’s like if the playwright for Love Amongst The Dragons promised they could change the play so that people would enjoy it more, and only changed the lead actor and kept the script the exact same as it was before.... If that makes sense? Ugh, Uncle is so much better at this...”

The mention of the old play, one that Daisuke hadn’t heard of in decades, sent him back in time. He recalled a much younger Zuko complaining about the Ember Island Players’ performance of that very play to Lady Ursa every single year. 

“The scroll was much better!” The noble child said, his hands on his hips and nose scrunched up in distaste. 

Daisuke smiled at the memory, and returned to the present. Nobody knew, but the old man was a huge fan of theatre. Unfortunately, his salary didn’t allow him to splurge on theatre scrolls. Considering how popular it was, he had never managed to get a copy of the very play his ruler was referencing.

He bowed in an apologetic manner. “I have never seen Love Amongst The Dragons, but I understand your intention, Prince Zuko.”

“You haven’t seen it?” The Prince’s one eyebrow rose in surprise. “Oh… Well… I don’t think there’s any performances of it right now. I could find you a copy of the play, if you would like?”

The old man blinked several times, his heart speeding up. At this point, he was pretty sure that going from serving the cruel Fire Lord Ozai to serving the awkward, well-meaning Prince Zuko was going to give him whiplash.

He quickly shook his head and bowed even lower. “No, no, My Prince. I could not, it would be inappropriate of me to waste your time on trivial matters.” He noticed the Prince frown slightly, and quickly changed the subject. “I will inform the palace staff about your requests for the coronation. Is there anything else you would like them to know?”

Zuko made a noise of surprise, as if he had forgotten what their meeting was originally about. “Oh, yes I do.” He took the letters and began to roll them into tight scrolls. “Could you inform the chefs to prepare a banquet of food? A-and maybe see if they know any recipes from the other three nations? I want our guests to be welcome.”

“Guests?” Daisuke asked. Who could they be planning to host? The nobles? Or maybe the generals?

Setting down several scrolls, Zuko answered, "We’ll be hosting people from the other three nations during and after the coronation. They’ll be attending as well.”

Daisuke felt his heart skip. “W-what?” He croaked, years of forcefully ingrained propaganda rising to the surface of his mind. ”My Prince, are you sure that is safe? They could be… They could be planning a combined attack, or they might hurt you!”

For a moment, the Prince looked extremely irritated. But as quickly as it appeared, it was replaced by determination. 

“Listen, I know that the war only just ended, but they aren’t going to hurt us. They want peace just as much as we do, anything you heard otherwise is lies. The other nation is filled with people just like us. People who are gentle, and kind, and-”

The door behind them was suddenly thrown open, making Daisuke jolt in shock and whip around. He was surprised to find the pint-sized earthbending girl that the Prince had been housing along with the rest of Team Avatar.

“Hey Sparky! I got some more people for you to bring to the coronation thing!” She loudly announced as she strode into the office like she owned the place.

For a moment, Daisuke felt terrified. To enter without knocking, to call their Fire Lord ‘Sparky’, and to act so informal in front of him… What was she thinking?! The Fire Lord could kill her for acting in such a way!

But when he looked back at the Prince, his expression was one of exhausted fondness. “Toph… I’m kind of talking with Daisuke right now…” 

The young woman waved her hand dismissively. “Yeah, yeah that’s great. Do you want the list or am I going to steal Appa and go find them by myself?” 

The Prince rolled his eyes with a smirk on his face. Turning his golden eyes to the servant, he gave an apologetic look. “Sorry about this Daisuke-”

“Don’t apologize, my presence is a gift!” Toph interrupted.

Ignoring her sarcastic remark, Zuko continued, "Do you think you could pass on the things I mentioned before? I can pass along anything else to you later.”

Daisuke held back a chuckle and bowed one last time. “Of course, Prince Zuko.” He turned and left the office. As he shut the door, the conversation loudly continued.

“Okay I was thinking that this coronation won’t be a party unless we have the cool people. We need The Hippo, we need The  _ Boulder _ !”

“What are these names?!”

“Hey, less talking, more writing!!”

\-- -- -- -- -- -- --

The coronation was lovely. Zuko’s speech was one that seemed to resonate with everyone. Daisuke watched as he stood side by side with Avatar Aang as a newly crowned Fire Lord. Then, to his amazement, the crowd erupted in cheers.

It wasn’t just the Fire Nation cheering like Daisuke had feared would happen. All four nations cheered, there was happiness throughout the courtyard. After his shock finally faded away, he found himself joining in as well.

The festivities lasted well into the night, and no matter how much Daisuke groused about his sore bones, he knew it was a small price to pay. Music and dancing, people from all four nations enjoying their time together without the pain of war. It was the first time the old man had ever seen such joy, and he thanked Agni for letting him live long enough to witness it.

When the several days of celebration finally ended, Daisuke was completely exhausted. Despite his initial apprehension towards the groups of people from the other three nations, he found that they were all peaceful, albeit chaotic, guests.

He tiredly made his way to the servants quarters, ready to collapse in his bed and sleep until the next eclipse. That was when he noticed a wrinkled scroll on his bed. He raised an eyebrow curiously, and turned on his lamp to see what it said. Gently, he unrolled the paper and scanned the top line. “Oh…” 

Love Amongst The Dragons.

Daisuke’s heart swelled. The Fire Lord remembered their conversation, and took the time to find this… For him? A small smile appeared on his wrinkled face.  _ Fire Lord Zuko, you've grown into a fine young man. _

He settled under the covers with his light held close. He was too excited to think about sleeping, he had a play to read.

(And many years later, when an elderly Daisuke retired and moved to Ember Island, he would wholeheartedly agree with Fire Lord Zuko. The scroll was better.)


End file.
